Diversity roundtable focuses on problems faced by international, undocumented students

Ten minority students gathered for a Diversity Roundtable with the IU Student Association last week to talk about problems and isolation they had faced on campus.

Leighton Johnson, chief of diversity inclusion and advocacy of IUSA, organized the event to discuss mutual diversity issues and solutions at IU and has been a vocal student advocate of diversity at IU in his four years here.

“Is there a diversity problem at IU?” Johnson asked.

All of the students, in some form, said yes.

“A lot of students don’t wanna come to IU because they don’t think anyone like them attends IU,” said Noelle Gipson, education policy recruiter and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, a primarily black sorority.

Although students were shy at first, as the event continued, they began to open up.

“It’s almost a heritage thing,” Victoria Hicks said. “For most of its history, it’s been a very white university. People who are looking for diversity are probably going to head to a school that’s more diverse.”

Victoria Hicks attended as a representative of student group DREAM IU, which advocates for the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act would give undocumented students an opportunity to become American citizens.

Ali Haynes, a Filipino transfer student from University of Southern Indiana, said she felt isolated as a minority transfer student and had considered leaving IU.

“I was expecting more strength and unity amongst the international community, because that’s what I was used to down there,” Haynes said.

“Everyone supported each organization and supported each other, so it was just very different when I came here and I felt like I didn’t have anyone to connect to. I felt like I still didn’t fit in.”

One problem many students mentioned was the divide between international students and domestic students on campus.

They said both communities were underserved by a lack of collaboration between international students and domestic students.

“You’re not getting an American education, you’re getting an education in America,” said Fred Diego, senior and president of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

The group suggested merging international and domestic orientations and including some Welcome Week events to fix this divide.

Another problem, the students said, was the struggle undocumented students faced in applying to IU. The undocumented students in the room agreed that the process to apply was unnecessarily complicated, and it was unclear if they could even be accepted at the school.

“There are not a lot of us, and the process to apply is difficult and biased,” Hicks said.

The solution, members of the round table agreed, would be to form an IU Diversity Coalition Alliance that would bring together the different ethnic, religious and academic groups on campus to foster a culture of diversity.

Johnson said IUSA organized an event April 8 to bring together the different cultural centers on campus.

“I challenge you all to speak to someone new, discuss the issues we talked about tonight,” Gipson said. “Bring a friend, see if we can get the conversation larger ... I think its 100 percent feasible to do.”

Although the meeting focused on diversity problems, students also noted some strengths.

“We have wonderful diversity in our staff and faculty,” Hicks said. “Instead of advertising that we want diversity, we have diversity and we want to encourage it.”

Follow reporter Dani Castonzo on Twitter @Dani_Castonzo.